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Jesus in the New Year
Since the moment my kids began to understand the concept of love, we’ve been playing the “I love you” game. “I love you.” “I love you more.” “I love you most.” Sixteen years and four kids—they’ve each searched for a way to best me but I always end with, “I love you most. You’ll understand when you grow up.” That worked for sixteen years until Wyatt. Last time I said, “I love you more,” he responded with, “I love you how much God loves you.” No arguing with that. Right? Not even infinity plus one can top God’s love. I don’t think he planned on the theological argument that followed,…
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Jaime Jo does it Again!
Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo WrightMy rating: 5 of 5 stars Just when you think Jaime Jo Wright can’t possibly get any better, she writes Echoes Among the Stones! I was engrossed from page one. Even when I had to put the book down to attend to ‘real’ life I felt as though I was carrying the story around with me. It was beautiful and had depth of feeling that you don’t forget just because you close the cover. This is a book where I will remember the characters, the relationships, and the scenarios as if they had happened to a close friend. That’s how real and…
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Look to Jesus
Our baby is learning how to drive, which is crazy because it feels like yesterday that she was in diapers. Every time I explain a road rule, I remember what it felt like to learn myself—because that feels like yesterday too. Some things stand out in my memory, like my mom riding shot-gun, pointing my attention into the distance and telling me to stop focusing on the car in front of me. As I repeated that lesson and heard my mom’s voice come out of my mouth, I couldn’t help but think of Peter’s focusing problem. Immediately He [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of…
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Growing Faith & Killing Fear (guest post)
My dear friend and fellow suspense writer, Jerusha Agen asked me to guest post on her Fear Warrior Blog. "Fear is natural to our human nature. From the moment we are born, we enter a world damaged by sin. A world that runs on fear." Read Now Fear Warrior Blog Click Here
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How can Love & Hate Co-Exist
I have the best grandmother in the entire world. If I were ever tempted to doubt God’s love for me, all I would need to do is look at the blessing he gave me in her. She’s loving and dependable and tells it how she sees it. Most of all, she’s wise. When I was a teenager, she once told me something that was impossible for me to understand at the time. She said, “Love is staying married to someone even when you hate them. The good times come and go and sometimes you’ll hate that man so much you’ll wish he’d go too, but love is sticking together even…
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Dear Discouraged
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:17-18 Dear Discouraged, I heard your discouragement and in our moment of shared brokenness we had nothing to offer each other. Instead, we discovered something—discouragement grows in isolation. But God has something for else for us. Psalm 34:17-18 says, “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them.” This phrase is plural, not singular. “Cry out” is translated from tsa`aq. It means to shriek; to proclaim (an assembly). It can also be translated as a Hebrew idiom that…
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Chills, Thrills, Redemption & Relationship (Book Review)
The Curse of Misty Wayfair Today I wanted to do something a bit different. I want to share something special with you. Easily one of the best books I read last year, The Curse of Misty Wayfair entertained while approaching difficult issues with brave faith. Synopsis Left at an orphanage as a child, Thea Reed vowed to find her mother someday. Now grown, her search takes her to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908. When clues lead her to a mental asylum, Thea uses her experience as a post-mortem photographer to gain access and assist groundskeeper Simeon Coyle in photographing the patients and uncovering the secrets within. However, she never expected…
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Why do You Love Me?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished…
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Respect vs Acceptance
This week I read a Facebook status that hit me hard. Ravi Zacharias said, “It is self-defeating to trample underfoot everything others hold dear before giving them the message of Christ. My mother used to say, ‘There is no point cutting off a person’s nose and then giving them a rose to smell.’” He followed it up with this post, “Listening is a vital part of responding. The more and the better we hear others, the more and the better others will hear us.” I’m probably not alone when I say I often see this ideal within Christian circles that hearing out philosophies/theories/concepts that we don’t agree with—or just being…
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Salt & Grace
I just passed the 23rd anniversary of my new life and one truth becomes more and more obvious to me as the years pass… My pride is a master shapeshifter. As I’ve grown from a baby Christian, God has weeded out blatant arrogance. But in its place softer and deadlier variations sprout—finding fault, desire to be liked, defensiveness. And those are only a few. My pride conceals itself behind a more tenable mask to avoid prying its claws from my character. All that to say, I still have major issues within this process of sanctification. So when my friend texted to check in on a specific sticky situation, my hurt…
